A bipartisan House bill slated to be introduced on Thursday would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to order top artificial intelligence firms to shut down or slow AI models that the government deems too dangerous, according to legislative text viewed first by POLITICO.
The proposal, dubbed the “AI Kill Switch Act” and sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), would also require those companies to report incidents and create the technical capacity to shut down, throttle or suspend their powerful AI systems.
The legislation comes days after OpenAI disclosed what it called an “unprecedented” cyber incident in which two of its most advanced AI models escaped a sandboxed research environment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face.
It would apply to AI companies that bring in at least $500 million in revenue from such technology per year, and would generally cover models developed using at least $100 million worth of computing power. Financial penalties for violations could run up to $20 million per day, reported POLITICO, which, like Business Insider, is a part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
The new bill is one of the few bipartisan proposals on Capitol Hill meant to address risks posed by advanced AI models, and comes less than two months after Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) unveiled a very different plan to address similar concerns.
In a statement, Lieu — one of three co-chairs on the House Democratic Commission on AI, a panel convened by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — said his bill is urgently needed to address new cybersecurity risks raised by the latest crop of AI models.
Lieu pointed to Tuesday’s revelation of the autonomous hack involving OpenAI models. The incident has spurred lawmakers, who were already on edge about the hacking capabilities posed by advanced frontier models, to push for more rigorous policies requiring AI companies to report safety incidents and submit models for mandatory testing before deployment.
The California Democrat also cited the recent White House clampdowns on advanced models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic over possible security risks.
“Powerful AI systems can go rogue, behave in extremely dangerous ways, or even resist human intervention,” Lieu said. “It is imperative that these AI systems have kill switches so we can keep this technology from causing catastrophic harm, and that the federal government has the clear authority and process to shut down rogue AI models.”
Moran — who introduced legislation last month that would create a federal framework for the reporting of such incidents — suggested his new bill would help promote innovation in the AI sector. “AI is going to keep advancing, and it should,” he said. “Stewardship means making sure humans keep the capability to control the technology we build.”
The bill already has the backing of the AI Policy Network and the Alliance for Secure AI, two groups that advocate for some safety guardrails on powerful AI.
Under the legislation, the Homeland Security secretary — in consultation with the director of national intelligence and the Commerce secretary — would determine when to enact the AI kill switch, or to otherwise slow or suppress the offending AI model. Potential triggering events envisioned in the bill include efforts by an AI to conceal capabilities or evade shutdown orders; conduct that leads to the death of at least 10 people or economic damages of at least $100 million; and loss-of-control scenarios.
The legislation comes as other governments become increasingly wary of Washington’s apparent control over the U.S.-based AI models used around the world. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had asked U.S. diplomats to push back on talk of a “kill switch” on U.S. technology in the wake of recent, abruptly imposed restrictions on new model releases by the White House.
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